


I'll Be There For You

by skuls



Category: Friends (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluffiness, Mondler, the one with all the thanksgivings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-06-18
Packaged: 2018-06-04 12:31:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6657799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuls/pseuds/skuls
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of Tumblr prompts for Friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> "Could I borrow a shirt to wear?"

It takes a few good minutes to cut the turkey off of Monica’s head. She promises to be back after showering, with an audible shudder about the germs in a turkey. The good news is, ever since Joey ran out screaming, she hasn’t brought up the “I love you”. The bad news is, Chandler himself hasn’t stopped thinking about it.

She comes back over with a dripping ponytail and a box of noodles. “You hungry? You didn’t eat much at dinner.”

“Well, you know… boycotting Thanksgiving has that effect,” he points out. “What’re you doing?”

“Making you some mac-n-cheese.” Monica sets down the box, and opens their pantry.

“For old time’s sake?”

“Ugh, Chandler, when was the last time you washed a pot?”

“Yesterday,” he whines.

She’s already halfway across the hall.

“Mon, I’d say we’re even by now,” he says, going to stand at the door. “I mean, I called you fat, you chopped off my toe, and then you danced around my apartment with a turkey on your head and scared my roommate off.”

She pushes past him into their kitchen with a box of noodles and a hunk of cheese in one hand, and a pot in the other. “Chandler, just let me make you some dinner. Okay? I mean, you are the reason I became a chef.”

—

Nearly a half-hour later, Monica is still cooking. Joey has called to inform Chandler that he’ll be staying with Phoebe tonight. “But… not because I’m scared!” he added defensively. “I think all those past life memories shook Pheebs up, and I want to protect her.” Chandler agreed wholeheartedly. He definitely doesn’t mind having their apartment to himself - not when his relationship with Monica is still a secret, and he has to make up for something his stupid 18-year-old self said. 

He’s doodling a cartoon turkey on the whiteboard when there’s a sizzling sound, and Monica groans behind him. Some cheese has splattered all over her. “Oh, no.”

“It’s okay,” he starts.

“No, it’s not! I need to get this clean before the stain sets in. Could I borrow a shirt to wear?”

“Su-” The words are barely even out of his mouth before she’s switching off the burner and practically sprinting back to his bedroom. Chandler goes to examine the concoction on the stove as she leaves to go wash the shirt. He definitely shouldn’t have kidded about the whole chef thing. Where would their group be without Monica’s cooking? He grabs the box of noodles.

“Hey, Chandler?” He turns to face her, box of noodles still in hand. She’s got on of his button-downs on, sleeves drooping over her hands. Her forehead furrows. “Why do you have the macaroni?”

He looks at his hand with some slight surprise. “Well - I’m trying to seduce you,” he says, stumbling over his words. 

She grins, and ducks her head. “Chandler…”

She moves past him towards the stove, but he catches her by the sleeve. “Forget the macaroni, Mon.”

Chandler leans down and kisses her. When he pulls back, she seems to be reeling a little. “Okay.”

He really does love her. He just can’t tell her yet.


	2. “You hide it with jokes and sarcasm but I can see how broken you are.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The One with the Proposal AU

It’s strange to be in their apartment now - or _his_ apartment, anyway. It’s not clean, for one. Their friends aren’t constantly hanging out around. It’s quiet, too quiet. He’d leave if he thought he could. Their bedroom still smells like her, some strange combination of Clorox and perfume. 

He’s only talked to her once since she left, and she made it clear: she’s not coming back. He tried to explain, and she wouldn’t listen. “You shouldn’t have led me on,” she said. “You-you should have just been straight forward and proposed, instead of making me think you didn’t want that. Now, it’s too late.”

“It’s not too late,” he tried. “It’s never too late.”

“Yes, it is,” she’d said, and that had been the end of it. Her parents probably openly hate him now. He’s surprised that their friends don’t. He’d expected Joey to stick around, and maybe Phoebe, since she’s still living with him, but he’d expected Ross and Rachel to be angry, to take Monica’s side. They all feel sorry for him, though. They all stop talking when he enters a room, all follow his movements with large eyes. It’s the kind of treatment that they gave Ross and Rachel after their breakup. Funny, now he’s stuck in a Ross and Rachel type tragedy.

He watches a lot of TV to try and take his mind off of it (off of her). Joey will usually join him, and sometimes Ross as well. It’s gotten to a place where weird things remind him of her, like most food commercials and the Swiffer commercial - okay, maybe that’s not weird knowing Monica, but still. He would probably burst out crying every ten or so minute intervals, if he could cry. 

Ross comes over one day to find him sitting with her T-shirt across his lap, which he immediately shoves behind the couch. He sits down across from Chandler, and gives him what is possibly the most serious look one will ever get from Ross. “Dude,” he says. “You hide it with jokes and sarcasm but I can _see_ how broken you are.” 

Chandler shrugs with faked nonchalance. “I mean, I normally makes jokes, so…”

“You and my sister were good together,” Ross continues. “And I know she misses you.”

He finds the box where he stashed the ring one day, and holds it curled in his palm for a while. It’s kind of stupid, seeing as how she never got to wear it. He stalks out of their room one morning, and holds his hand out to Phoebe, who is eating cereal at the table. “Here. I know you liked it, and, uh, I really don’t have a use for it now.”

Phoebe shakes her head firmly and shoves his hand away. “No, you keep it.” She taps her forehead. “I had a, uh, _vision_ about you two. It’s going to work out. I promise.”


	3. “I need you to pretend we’re dating…”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place in late S3

It’s not completely out of the ordinary for one of his friends to be standing in his living room uninvited. But honestly, it’s strange to see Monica out of her natural habitat. “For the last time, Monica, no, you cannot clean the apartment!” he says in that sarcastic tone everyone recognizes so well.

She fakes a laugh, a fake laugh that actually sounds halfway sincere. “That was a good one!” she says with that familiar enthusiasm. 

Chandler crosses his arms. “What do you want,” he replies knowingly.

“I need you to pretend we’re dating.”

“Wait, _what_?”

Monica groans. “Ross and I have dinner with my parents, and he’ll be bringing Rachel, and my parents know I haven’t had a serious relationship since Richard, and I know my mom will make a hundred snide comments. So if you could just _please_ fake it at this dinner, I’ll tell my mom we broke up next time I talk to her. _Please_? I’ll owe you!”

He agrees on the sole basis of he misses doing stuff with Janice, and can fake it for one night for one of his best friends.

They give Ross and Rachel  (as well as Joey and Phoebe, since they’re there) a head’s up on the faking it thing. They seem to think it’s pretty funny. “You, Mr. No-Commitment, and Monica, Miss I-Wanna-Settle-Down?” Phoebe comments. “Oh, sure, that’s _totally_ believable!”

“Hey,” Chandler starts defensively. “I could commit if I wanted to! I asked Janice to move in with me!”

“I know, I know,” she replies with a wave of her hand. “It’s just… it’s _Chandler_ and _Monica_.”

“How is that any different from Ross and Rachel?” Monica counters.

“Because they’re Ross and Rachel!” Joey says. “They’re each other’s crabs!”

“Lobsters,” Phoebe corrects, patting his head.

“Say what you guys want, but I think it’s weird,” Rachel says. “As weird as… Ross and Phoebe almost hooking up.”

“Remember, sweetie, we talked about how we never mention that,” Ross says.

The dinner becomes a source of great entertainment in their group. Someone makes a point of saying, “Oh, look, there’s the happy couple” when Monica and Chandler walk in together. Gunther actually asks if they are dating at one point. (Except he addresses Joey as Chandler instead of Chandler.) Their casual affection starts to feel weird. More meaningful. Almost like lightening whenever she is around him. Chandler is really dreading the damn thing, to be honest.

And then Monica gets an actual boyfriend.

He’s not all that surprised - someone like Monica isn’t bound to be single for long. He’s almost relived, in fact, when she thanks him, but tells him she doesn’t need him to fake it anymore. Now things can stop being weird between them. Now, he can finally relax around her. Stop feeling weird about having an arm around her on the coffee shop couch, because they’re friends and that’s what they do. It’s not weird. At least now he won’t have to pretend to be flustered and hold her hand under Judy’s table.

(Okay, maybe a part of him regrets it. But it’s a very small part.)


	4. “I will knock you on your ass if you even think about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place post show

He’d really thought about calling Joey or Rachel or Phoebe or Ross for help. But the minute he’d mentioned it to Monica, she’d jabbed a finger in his direction and said, “I will knock you on your ass if you even think about it. You could use some time alone with the kids, anyway, and you don’t need help.”

It’s not that he needs help, it’s just that he’s never been alone with the kids for longer than a few hours since they were born. And it’s that he’s not sure if he’s as good with them as Monica is. 

Still, they manage to survive a few hours without Mom keeping everything under control. Chandler watches the twins, their dark heads bent together as they stack blocks on the rug, from the kitchen door as he talks to Monica. (Erica’s telling Jack how to do it, very serious, she’s spent enough time around Monica to mimic her commanding nature and it’s probably the cutest thing he’s ever seen.) “Yeah, the twins are fine,” he says. “They’re just playing.”

“Oh, I miss them,” she says through the crackling of the phone. “Tell them I love them. Can I talk to them?”

He hands over the phone and watches them huddle around it, their conflicting, rushed three-year-old speech emitting itself directly into the phone. He smiles. 

Erica knows all the words to the _Annie_ soundtrack - or what she thinks are the words, anyway - and she demands he play it anytime that the two of them are in the car. Jack is the only member of the family to find his jokes funny - the ones he understands, anyway. Erica draws him pictures with markers that he hangs in his office. Jack crawls in bed with them every time there’s a storm (always crawls over him instead of Monica to get to the middle, every time, to where he wonders if it’s a calculated thing). They treat the Big White Dog like a jungle gym. Monica and Chandler managed to compromise and get a dog and a cat. Chandler still has a room in the garage if Joey ever needs it, as promised. Aunt Rachel and Uncle Ross and Aunt Phoebe all visit a lot - Phoebe has one of her own on the way, and the twins love playing with Emma. Family life. It’s a funny thing. But it’s still them, even if they’re not in a nice rent-controlled apartment, right across the hall from two friends and across the street from one more.

After they finish a frenzied conversation with Monica, Erica comes directly over and climbs in his lap, Jack on her heels. They’re almost too big to both fit, but he manages to shift them so that they do. Jack wants to hear a story. He giggles at all of the jokes, and Erica groans at them (”Mommy and Uncle Ross and Aunt Rachel always groan at your jokes, Daddy”).  

By the time he’s fed the kids and given them a bath, he can feel some tension easing off, thinks _I’m doing okay_. Chandler Bing ends up with two pajama-d toddlers sleeping on their mom’s side of the bed because they missed her, huddled together like puppies. He takes a picture to show Monica when she gets home.


End file.
